TEMPE, Ariz. – The enormity of just how pathetic a loss this was for the Giants cannot be overstated. And the main culprit just might be the head coach, Jim Fassel.

In a throwback performance, the Giants scored on their first possession then stunk up the desert air, giving away points rather than getting any themselves. Turnovers, penalties and botched chances all mixed together to ensure that the stink of the Giants’ 21-7 loss to the Cardinals at Sun Devil Stadium will linger for quite some time.

The worst offender of all was Fassel, who apparently gave his approval for a bone-head call at the end of the first half. The Giants should have gone in at halftime leading 7-0 but rather than sit on the ball, Kerry Collins fired a pass that was intercepted by safety Justin Lucas and returned 38 yards for a touchdown. The Cardinals used that gift momentum to frustrate the Giants the rest of the way.

This desultory affair was sealed with 2:13 remaining when Marcel Shipp scored on a 10-yard run, giving the Cardinals 21 unanswered points.

The Giants, coming off victories over the Rams and Seahawks, dropped to 2-2 in front of 30,014 at a half-filled stadium. It was 90 degrees at kickoff and probably a great deal hotter in the Giants locker room after this debacle.

There were some seriously strange moves. With 8:31 remaining and the Giants trailing 14-7, Fassel decided to punt on fourth-and-5 from the Arizona 38-yard line. It was a curious move, considering his defense was a tiring bunch, and Allen let his coach down by sending a 16-yard wobbler off the side of his foot that sailed out of bounds at the Cardinals’ 22-yard line.

The missed chances by the Giants added up in almost comical fashion. Here’s a sampling:

In the second quarter, Jason Sehorn dropped a sure interception. He stepped in front of David Boston and had plenty of room to run, but couldn’t hold on.

Punter Matt Allen fielded a wide snap to his left in the third quarter and for some reason decided to run, even though he needed 15 yards. He gained 10.

Collins and Ron Dixon connected on a brilliant 76-yard touchdown in the third quarter, but the TD was nullified by a holding penalty on right tackle Mike Rosenthal.

The Giants had the Cardinals off the field on a three-and-out in the fourth quarter, but Michael Strahan was called for a 15-yard, roughing-the-passer penalty. Six plays later, Arizona scored the winning touchdown with 10:36 left when a scrambling Jake Plummer bought time for himself and found Shipp for a 7-yard TD.

An incredibly misguided decision at the end of the first half turned a 7-0 Giants lead into a 7-7 tie. Make that a stupid decision. That is the only way to describe the play offensive coordinator Sean Payton called with 14 seconds remaining. Moments earlier, Bill Gramatica had missed a 42-yard field goal attempt, deflating the Cardinals and securing the Giants seven-point lead. But the Giants got dumb and it cost them.

Taking over on their own 32-yard line with 14 seconds left, the only reasonable move for the Giants was to take a knee and feel decent about their halftime lead.

But Collins faded back and threw the one pass that’s never called in these situations, an out, which is a high-risk play directed toward the sideline. Collins looked to his right and threw behind Tiki Barber. Lucas stepped in front of Barber for the interception and raced 38 yards for the touchdown, with Collins in hot pursuit.

“I’ll never be that stupid again,” Jim Fassel said in a halftime television interview.

Tired of hearing about their anemic red-zone results, the Giants showed they could find their way into the end zone with a crisp 46-yard drive on their first possession. Clearly, the Giants believed they could throw on the Cards and did so from the start, featuring Jeremy Shockey time and again.

On several plays, the Giants had no one behind Collins in the backfield and put four or even five receivers on the line. They gained 19 yards on a well-designed screen to Shockey, then split Barber and Sean Bennett and fired to Shockey on third-and-2 for a four-yard pickup.

Barber powered past safety Adrian Wilson on the goal-line for a 6-yard TD run, snapping two streaks of futility. The Giants came into the game with one touchdown in 10 red-zone appearances and with just one TD in 33 possessions.